#Create image of hard drive free install
#Create image of hard drive free upgrade
#Create image of hard drive free full
#Create image of hard drive free verification
#Create image of hard drive free software

If you're thinking about swapping out a hard drive in your PC, you should consider drive cloning. Make sure the location where the image is saved is attached, choose to restore from an image, and follow the instructions to get your PC running again. If your PC is in a state where you can boot but are immediately taken to a blue screen, there should be an option that lets you restore your PC from an image backup. Upon the restart, the Macrium Reflect System Recovery should boot automatically and your image will be restored. You'll be prompted to restart your PC, which you can do when ready. If you're restoring the drive that contains your OS, Macrium will prompt you to start a Windows PE environment.Д¬lick Run from Windows PE. If you're restoring a secondary drive, the process will begin. The partitions and drives should appear similar.

#Create image of hard drive free verification

Click Restore Image when the verification process is complete.Д¬lick Next after ensuring the destination disk is the drive you want to restore.

Click Verify Image when you've found an image you'd like to restore from.

Macrium will list images it finds in the main frame of the window. Make sure the storage location holding your images is connected before beginning these steps.Д¬lick the Restore tab near the top-left corner of the window. If your PC still boots properly, you can simply use the Macrium app to make this happen. In the event that some of your data is corrupted or your PC becomes infected with malware, you can restore from the drive image. Depending on the size and type of the drive being imaged, this process can take awhile, but it is almost always faster than cloning a drive.

#Create image of hard drive free upgrade

You'll have to upgrade to a paid plan if you want to set scheduled image backups.)Д¬lick Next when you're satisfied with the scheduled backup options. (You can skip this step if you just want to create an image once or plan on scheduling things yourself.

(It looks like three dots in a row.)Д¬lick the drop-down arrow beneath Select a Template for your Backup Plan. You can also image any other drives on your PC.)Д¬lick the browse button next to the Folder field. (In this case, I chose the drive that holds C: because it holds all the information required to restore my PC in the case of a failure.

Launch Macrium Reflect from your Start menu, desktop or taskbar.Д¬lick the drive you want to image.

Note that you cannot save the image to the same drive that is being imaged. If you're saving the image to an external hard drive, ensure it's plugged into your PC before you begin. Now that Macrium Reflect is installed, you can get busy imaging your drive.

Click Next when the download is finished.Д¬lick No or type your information if you want to register Macrium Reflect.

Click Download when you are satisfied with the options listed in the window.

Launch your web browser from the Start menu, desktop or taskbar.

#Create image of hard drive free install

The first step is to install Macrium Reflect on your PC. If you want to create scheduled images, whether incremental or differential, you'll have to upgrade to a paid plan.

#Create image of hard drive free full

Macrium Reflect has a free version that works great for casual users who want to make a single, full image of their hard drives. For just the cloning and imaging software, you'll spend about $40. There are a few buying options to choose from when it comes to Acronis - there is also a 30-day free trial - including subscription options that come with 50GB or 1TB of cloud storage. Its UI is super simple to use, and you can even set an automatic file sync that will keep your backup up to date. Like Macrium Reflect, there is a fully-functional, free version of AOMEI that lets you create system images, back up hard drives, and clone drives. We've been using Macrium Reflect for a while and so far haven't found a reason to switch, but there are also plenty of other imaging options out there, including one built right into Windows 10.

#Create image of hard drive free software

See our external hard drive buyer's guide Imaging software options You can use a secondary internal drive, a network location, or an external drive connected via USB.

Д«efore you begin, you should prepare a place to save your drive images, because images can't be saved on the same drive you're imaging. For more information about imaging, check out our comparison between drive imaging and drive cloning: Images can be stored on external drives in the event of a failure and can be used to completely restore a PC when things go wrong. One way to back up your drive is to create an image, which is basically a compressed snapshot of your entire drive, OS and all. It makes life way easier in the event of a drive failure, and thanks to intuitive software, the whole ordeal is quite painless. Creating backups of your data is a great idea for pretty much everyone.